Drove it for one winter, so I needed snow tires. Swapped on the tires I had used for the SSEi:
But, I stopped driving it in the summer because the transmission kept getting too hot, and I ran into some other maintenance issues. Knowing it had a busted trans, in Jan. of 2020 I picked up an 02 LeSabre for dirt cheap that was almost completely rusted out in the back. However, there was at least $1000 worth of new parts on it, plus new tires, and the engine and trans only had 96K on them, with zero issues.
So, in early fall, the swap started.
The project went smooth, but took awhile, mostly because the cold set in quick. During the swap, the 03 got a bunch of new parts like control arms, tie rods, end links, struts, trans mount, brake lines, and a new caliper and wheel bearing on the driver's side. The subframe got cleaned up, and installed new mounts and bushings, and replaced the front engine mount with the boat roller. The engine had new gaskets and seals installed. Swapped the exhaust with new hangers. I even put in the FE2 swaybars from the SSEi (since it now has FE5), with new bushings, and it's amazing how much better the car handles. In the future, it's probably getting other hand-me-downs from the SSEi, mainly because I won't have any other uses for the parts, and they'll be free upgrades.
To finish things up, I've added a few extras to the car.
The Aeroforce from the SSEi (only because it's not being used right now, and it's a good way to monitor things, it'll go back once the SSEi is near completion):
Upgraded the audio (on the cheap) because the stock speakers were crackling and the CD player died:
Swapped in the FWI kit from the SSEi (as it's being upgraded and no longer useful for that car):
And because the winter season has me doing a lot of night driving, and the headlights suck, I decided to add some LED driving lights:
The last major thing I have left to do is swap the interior from the parts car into the 03. It's pristine, and everything in the 03 is a sugary mess. That should be done soon.
So, this was one reason work on the SSEi got pushed back, so I kind of wanted to share that. I'll post up what has been done to the GXP a little later.
